David Goldblatt at Michael Stevenson
by Tavish McIntosh
At gallerist Michael Stevenson's suggestion, David Goldblatt has arranged his latest solo exhibition as a compendium of early and more recent works, showing pre- and post-apartheid spaces. Astute and intriguing juxtapositions play on the 'before and after' formula beloved of beauty mags, but Goldblatt ensures that this is no simple celebration of the present nor disavowal of the past. Instead we are treated to a commanding foray into the shifts within spaces through which people pass, in which they collect, and upon which they work to memorialise their presence. Not the contained collection Goldblatt displayed in 'Some Afrikaners Revisited' or the 2005 and 2003 'Intersections' shows, 'Intersections Intersected' allows viewers a space to reflect on the changing values of a society in flux, and to evaluate Goldblatt's own prodigious dedication to documenting this.
The opening triptych, perhaps the most telling of the show, depicts a familiar site for Capetonians. The imposing doors of the Synodal Hall of the Dutch Reformed Church in Orange Street are juxtaposed with a 1965 image of the filled benches within. Here tiers of grey-haired white men in suits stare intently at the podium, unself-consciously ignoring the lens. This massive gathering within this imposing central space, in a time when similar large gatherings of black people were viewed with acute suspicion, is underwritten by our awareness of the links between religious belief structures and power during apartheid.
The third image in the triptych is therefore all the more telling, as the cranes demolish the once majestic edifice. Removing the hall seems symbolic of more than the waning fortunes of the Dutch Reformed Church in the inner city: it is indicative of the changing symbolic power of certain spaces. Goldblatt's triptych opens us to an important question posed by the show: now that the value systems that underpinned apartheid times are in remission, affecting the very landscape of the city, what takes their place? Is the simple revolution (implied by the before-and-after formula) possible? Goldblatt's work is not a simple celebration of the waning of apartheid forces - in fact, anything as emotional as celebration seems inappropriate when applied to this photographer's work. Throughout the exhibition echoes of the past haunt the present, making it necessary to reassess the nature of the changes in recent times.
Elsewhere, an early image of a young child standing at the graves of the Cradock Four raising his arm in the ANC salute at a time when the ANC was banned, demonstrates the far-reaching rebellious energy of the struggle. Alongside this, Goldblatt has placed a colour image of the graves taken in 2004. Now signposted as being under the care of the South African Heritage Resources Agency, the graves are marked by extravagant pediments and gated off from the rest of the graveyard. These images show the changes from a movement of popular resistance to political institution. The site of political and ideological struggle morphs into a statement of political power, with its meaning governed by agencies and institutions rather than the people. Goldblatt highlights a key phenomenon of our times as the ANC renegotiates the story of the struggle against apartheid, memorialising the heroes and simultaneously institutionalising a certain history.
Monuments are of course structures dedicated to and documenting official histories - a notion Goldblatt continues to examine. The Berg-en-Dal Monument, commemorating the courage of 60 men of the South African Republic police for their part in a critical battle of the South African War, is shown pristine in 1983 and conversely broken in 2005. Obviously the political implications of that war are no longer so significant, and the monument is visibly neglected. Goldblatt thus revisits and updates his interest in the power invested and expressed in structures, documenting the physical manifestations of a changing political and ideological climate.
Elsewhere the relationship between the images is less strictly defined and a more fluid interpretation is needed to discern the reasoning behind the juxtaposition. Visible congruences between a swooping kite above a township and a leaping bungee jumper could be the reason for their juxtaposition, the common desire - across ages, areas and races - to echo our avian friends. But, perhaps for Goldblatt, it is the continuous interaction between people and the space in which they find themselves that is the most important. Goldblatt's focus on spaces has its architectural and aesthetic elements, yet it is the way in which humans affect, change and manoeuvre their way through space that is his main concern. Interstitial spaces become especially fertile grounds for the negotiation of meaning. An intersection, a park, a sidewalk: all these interstitial places Goldblatt adopts as his leitmotifs in order to show through juxtaposition the ways people and their environments adapt.
Goldblatt still refers to himself as a photographer rather than an artist, preferring to document rather than create realities. The comparative nature of 'Intersections Intersected' allows viewers to see in the works the complex negotiation of evolving belief systems that happens here. However, underlying Goldblatt's 'neutral' documentative approach is a steady cynicism of dominant political power and a critical dissection of the values people impose, endure and negotiate.
Within many of his images and throughout the exhibition, ironic juxtapositions rip apart the seams of privilege, the assumption of authority and the blind ideals of authenticity. Although it seems an unlikely word to impose on this seemingly impartial eye, Goldblatt's exhibition reflects an uncomfortably authentic vision of the disquieting affinities and odd discrepancies between the past and the present. 'Intersections Intersected' brings many important insights into our evolving landscape to light. Coming after Goldblatt's 'Some Afrikaners Revisited' in 2007, this show allows his continuing contribution to documenting our transient environment to be acknowledged.
Opens: January 16
Closes: March 1
Michael Stevenson Gallery
Hill House, De Smidt Street, Green Point
Tel: (021) 421 2575
Fax: (021) 421 2578
Email: info@michaelstevenson.com
www.michaelstevenson.com
Hours: Mon - Fri 9am - 5pm, Sat 10am - 1pm
